If only wings

Fury. Like a battery gives off a charge for a little while but is soon depleted after use.

Shadows mounted every corner, each time she turned there were more. Smothering her, enclosing on her, she was completely surrounded and they were drowning her, holding her under, forcing her down. Down. Down.

An angry, water-filled cry gurgled into a roar that made the small birds abandon their treetops. She fought free from the shadows' grip and from the depths of the water. She cried out something inhuman, animal-like. Her fingers twitched, flame lit at the movement and the fire cut through the shadows. They howled as she hacked them down with her bare hands. Desperate, they swarmed her: clawing at her throat, her arms, her cheeks, her hair. They clung to her body as she fought paralyzing her. Another scream left her sore, tired lungs.

White wings unfolded from her back knocking away shadow after shadow in clumps. The shadows weren't finished fighting back but neither was she. Finally angry, her eyes changed; they dripped fire and blood. The tops of her wings lit as well and the shadows shuddered. This was her fight and she was not backing down, out numbered as she was, she was phoenix tipped and this was her destiny.

The shadows fell limp as ribbons at the touch of her hand or the swoop of her wing. Soon the water was soiled with murk and blood. She was breathing hard and turning to every angle waiting for the next wave, expecting a shadow to rise again from its torn form in the water.

Her name was called from the shore and she thought she knew before she turned. Her fire vanished, her enemy disposed of, her wings folded and her eyes were boring once more. Tears fled from her. She did not want to be in the water--the demanding push and pull of it--she managed to bring herself onto the sand just far enough to keep the water from touching her. She couldn't tell if she threw herself down or if the weight of her body had brought her down as she sobbed noiselessly. Her body convulsing with each sob--too distraught to make a sound. She curled into a ball, grabbing sand in her fist. Her cries had a sound now. A scream clawed out of her throat like none of the ones before it. This one was the sound of human despair alone.